Exclusive: Esports executive Ralf Reichert discusses IOC partnership

In case anyone doubted Saudi Arabia's commitment to furthering esports as a serious profession, look no further than the inaugural Esports World Cup. Team Falcons placed first in the elite multi-genre esports competition last August, and took home $7 million out of a reported $60 million prize pool in Riyadh.

That's almost twice as much as Scottie Scheffler earned ($3.6 million) for winning the 2024 Masters. And while the Saudi investment in LIV Golf has garnered plenty of mainstream attention in the U.S. sports media, it's less often reported that the best gamers can now take home more money than the best golfer in one tournament.

To take esports out of its silo and into the mainstream, it needs more than a pot of gold serving as a shiny prize. Enter the International Olympic Committee.

We are incredibly proud to be a Founding Partner of the Olympic Esports Games, a groundbreaking event set to debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2027. This historic first edition marks a new era in competitive gaming, and we are excited to be at the forefront!@iocmedia @TeamSaudi https://t.co/jkVqhdg0nB
— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) February 11, 2025

The IOC recently announced the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) will become the Founding Partner of the Olympic Esports Games. To EWCF CEO Ralf Reichert, partnering with a traditional group like the IOC, which was founded in 1894, represents a logical step forward in esports' global recognition.

"If you look at almost the history of mankind, everything new takes a few generations to be accepted," Reichert told The Big Lead.

There are billions of people, particularly older, who have never played a video game. Saudi Arabia's ambitions to elevate the esports platform are helped by the fact that prime minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is just 39 and reportedly an avid gamer. He and IOC President Thomas Bach met earlier this month in Riyadh.

Esports represents a logical medium for the IOC to activate the Olympic brand among a generation that would rather be playing Call of Duty than watching, say, figure skating or gymnastics at 2 a.m.

More than that, the idea of international competition is more logically suited to a sport whose participants can compete from the comfort of different locations around the globe.

"The whole setup by default is not local and border-driven," Reichert told The Big Lead. "We believe that national pride and national competition as an add-on to the esports ecosystem will bring a lot of value and will give another way for people to identify, cheer for, and create a connection with the sport."

If the history of the Olympic Games is any guide, that only works when one country does not dominate a sport's playing field. So it is with esports, Reichert said. League of Legends is popular in China and Korea; Counterstrike and Dota are more popular in the U.S., Europe, South America and Ukraine; Mobile Legends:Bang Bang is popular in Indonesia, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries.

Some of that might change between now and 2027, when Riyadh hosts the inaugural Olympic Esports Games, but it's the foundation of a successful partnership.

"If you take those 20, 25 games together out of the Esports World Cup, almost all of the world is represented as being good to very good at one of these disciplines," Reichert told The Big Lead.

Reichert said plans to televise and stream the Olympic Esports Games have yet to be determined, but he noted that mass visibility is rarely an issue for the Summer and Winter Games. The most recent edition, last summer in Paris, finished with a total audience delivery average of 30.4 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, according to NBC Sports.

NBC's current contract with the IOC reportedly runs through 2032.

Both in terms of audience eyeballs and aesthetics, the Olympic Esports Games might look more like esports than traditional Olympic games. But the potential for human interest stories to rise into the mainstream consciousness is perhaps stronger.

"Every kid with a mobile phone in the swamps of Malaysia can theoretically qualify for this," Reichert said. "We've seen so many stories where players out of nowhere come into the final, win it, and change their whole life. And I think that's what I'm genuinely excited about."

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